big aussie in toronto.

so raptors fans are excited about the arrival of jermaine o'neal. so am i. really i am. ford was redundant behind jose calderon. and sure we gave up quite a bit - Roy Hibbert, Rasho and Maceo Baston on top of Ford but i think jermaine and bosh can be a pretty potent 1-2 combo. but that's not what i'm excited about.

i'm excited about this man...

nathan jawai.
he's a 21 year old, 6'10", 285lb centre. now i'm not going to even claim to be any sort of basketball scouting guru but i've heard & seen him before. you see he's an aussie. a kid from new south wales playing on a team in queensland for the aussie 'national basketball league'.
and he's just raw talent. he's a bit of a diamond in the rough - he started playing basketball just 5 years ago. from what i've seen so far he's exactly what the raptors lack. a big body in the middle to bang for rebounds and just be a nuisance - not a push over like that girl andrea. (ok. ok. i'm not bagging bargnani. but let's be honest, he's not exactly a scary guy.)

apparently one of his nicknames is "aussie shaq". let's hope he can live up to that. he might not make the team this year but watch out for him. my guess is that he'll be a regular in 2-3 years tops.